Effective Strategies to Close the Skills-Gap in the Blockchain Industry | Blocktribe

Aug 07, 2017

The blockchain community is growing fast, and as mentioned in our previous post, is seriously lacking in the talent department. This post focuses on effective strategies and opportunities to solve this talent shortage.

In our research, the main issue is a lack of education or practical knowledge of blockchain technology and a diverse workforce is needed to close the skills gap.

So how can you get involved? Here is a list of top strategies to get you started.

Luckily, whether you are thinking about education, training and certification, community outreach, governance and regulation, or you are looking to find yourself in R&D, startups, incubators or investment, there is so much in terms of guidance, leadership and expertise!

1. If you are a start-up, innovation department or a major corporation, engage all available talent to build a strong foundation. This includes developing talent and finding talent for high demand positions, such as: smart contract developers, blockchain business architects, salespeople, marketing managers, and computer engineers, but also investors, financial institutions, academia, policy groups, and leaders from traditional fields that can cross-over.

2. Plan and implement effective Workforce Strategies in your workplace. This can include:

Consider offering your own Teen-Turn Initiatives – a form of work placements for young girls and boys to help them enter the world of technology.

You can also create your talent through a focus on ancillary services such as marketing and copywrite.

Post thoughtful job advertisements with an emphasis on training and developing your talent (stay tuned for next week’s post about how to draft the best job advertisements!).

3. Get your company to sponsor your learning and development. Eventbrite offers so many events on bitcoin and beyond in top major blockchain hub cities like New York, London, and Toronto. The emerging block-chain space is also fueling local startup economies, hackathons, conferences, community events, and white papers. Get involved could be a stepping-stone for a full-fledged career.

4. If you are looking to gain formal training, many universities now offer courses in blockchain, cryptocurrency, architecture, software engineering and integration. Top universities offering courses in these topics as part of their degrees include NYU, University of Edinburgh, Stanford University, University of California, Berkley, and MIT. In Europe, Cyprus is at the top of its game in this regard, as the University of Niosia has introduced a world-renowned, one-year online program leading to a Master of Science in Digital Currency. Further, California start-ups have joined forces to create Blockchain University, and are expecting to start early next year to teach seasoned software engineers about the technology. The Cryptocurrency Certification Consortium also hands out certificates in this field.

You can also dabble in the field by taking Coinsilium’s Bitcoin, Blockchain and Beyond CPD course. There are also massive open online courses (MOOCs) and mentorship programs for developers interested in crossing-over into the fintech space. Functional Programming (Training) bootcamps are emerging in hub cities like London, California, New York, Toronto, and especially in Eastern Europe. A free 11-week cryptocurrency tech course is offered on Coursera.

6. Learn how to code either independently or through formal training. There is hot demand for talented coders in Solidity, LLL, Serpent, Java, C++, Go and Python.

7. And last but not least, be mobile and investigate countries that offer swift visas to attract tech talent. You may have to move to develop your skillset!

As mentioned, there are lots of opportunities to get involved, and because there is a low supply of talent, but a high demand for it, there is lots of opportunity for growth. If you position yourself well in this industry, you can build a very rewarding and fascinating career! Don’t fall behind, get started today!